For most of personal computer history, Apple has been in 3rd place behind Atari, Radio Shack, Commodore and later, IBM and the PC clones for units sold. At their percentage best year, 1991, Apple commanded less than 12 percent of the PC market. Currently they are running at about 2.5 percent of the PC market. Although, they hit more than 4 million computers sold in 2005.

I originally looked into these numbers while researching the impact of the Radio Shack TRS-80. For my formative years in computer programming, 1979-1980, the TRS-80 Model I was the top selling home computer. Apple sold maybe one third as many units during that time. The main reason was that the Apple ][ cost more than $2,000. And then you still had to buy a color TV set for it for another $300-$600. A new Ford Mustang sticker priced at $6,408. When you consider that you might pay $25,000 for that same car in 2006, $10,000 would be unthinkable to pay for a computer, when a high end PC is less than one tenth that cost.